Daily
postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1900
Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators,
legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, PTO/PTA officers, parent
advocates, teacher leaders, education professors, members of the press and a
broad array of P-16 regulatory agencies, professional associations and education
advocacy organizations via emails, website, Facebook and Twitter.
The Keystone State Education Coalition is
pleased to be listed among the friends and allies of The Network for Public
Education. Are you a
member?
These daily
emails are archived at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
“Additionally, school districts are required
to pay cyber charter schools for pension costs according to the formula.
However, the state also reimburses the cyber charter schools for up to 50
percent of their pension costs allowing those institutions to “double-dip” and
receive payment for the same costs twice.”
North
Superintendent Dr. Patrick Mannarino says “Pennsylvania ’s
flawed and overly generous funding formula has become too large of a burden for
North Hills School District
and our taxpayers." The North
Hills School Board recently approved a resolution calling for cyber
charter school funding reform to rectify tuition inequities. Pennsylvania ’s current funding formula is
not based on actual instructional costs, and tuition paid to cyber charter
schools far exceeds the cost of educating a student. …..Since 2008, North Hills has paid
$4,106,903 to cyber charter schools and only $471,639 or 11 percent of those
funds have been reimbursed by the state. North Hills
School District spends
$10,436 per student in a general education program at a cyber charter school.
The cost for a special education student is nearly twice that amount at
$19,952.
Chuck Ballard: Pa. must end 'double dip' reimbursement of
charter school pension costs
Chuck
Ballard is president of the East
Penn School
Board; his commentary does not necessarily reflect the position of the board or
school district.
As
our school districts prepare their
budgets for next school year, we must account for cyber charter school tuition
payments for students who do not attend district schools that divert
significant resources from our budgets. When it comes to cyber charter school
tuition, our school districts and taxpayers are overpaying these schools, and
we must address this issue now.
Then-Auditor
General Jack Wagner said in 2012 that Pennsylvania could save $365 million a year in
taxpayer money by adopting separate charter and cyber charter school funding
formulas, and by closing an administrative loophole that permits double-dipping
in pension payments through the calculation of tuition rates.
PA Charter Schools: $4 billion taxpayer dollars with no real
oversight Keystone State Education Coalition
(updated May 2,
2013 )
Charter schools - public funding without public scrutiny; Proposed
statewide authorization and direct payment would further diminish
accountability and oversight for public tax dollars
“Think about it -- in 2010, three hedge-fund billionaires from Bala
Cynwyd whose sole issue is corporate education reform spent
more than $6 million of their own money in a late and doomed effort to
elect a "school choice" fanatic from Philadelphia, state Sen. Anthony
Hardy Williams. Now, Williams is eyeing the mayor's race, where with time and
money he'd have a much better chance of winning -- and where there's little
doubt that the Hedge Fund 3 have millions more to essentially buy the mayor's
office for their single issue. And if Williams doesn't run, there's no doubt
the charter school billionaires will find someone else.”
UPDATED: Mayor Dread
UPDATED: Mayor Dread
Daily
News Attytood Blog by Will Bunch May 22, 2013 , 3:34 PM
There's
a Philadelphia
mayor that I like less than Mayor Nutter. Come back tonight and I'll tell you
who it is. Well, those bad chief
executives of yesteryear can't hurt us now (I don't think) but the mayor who
scares me the most right now is the NEXT one who will be elected in 2015. I'd
been thinking about this even before Philadelphia magazine came up with this cute ploy for
bloggers like me to write about them (hey, it worked).
Teaching positions, electives lost in Plum School
District ’s 2013-14 budget
By
Tribune-Review Published: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 , 10:45 p.m.
The Plum School Board on Wednesday night voted to advertise a 2013-14 preliminary budget that eliminates 24 teaching positions and a variety of electives, including television production and food and consumer science at the high school.
The Plum School Board on Wednesday night voted to advertise a 2013-14 preliminary budget that eliminates 24 teaching positions and a variety of electives, including television production and food and consumer science at the high school.
By Sara K.
Satullo | The Express-Times on May 22, 2013 at 7:50 PM
The Bangor
Area School Board signed off on a $50.2 million proposed final budget
that would hike taxes by 1.5 percent. It
would mean a tax hike of about $42 for the average homeowner with a home with
an assessed value of $56,000. The final budget vote must occur before June 30.
The
proposed final 2013-14 budget doesn't furlough any employees but the district
plans to cut jobs through attrition and avoid new hires as much as possible.
The budget taps the district's savings account to put $258,200, which the board
previously designated, towards pension costs.
Antietam District OKs merger talks with
Exeter
The
Antietam School Board has voted 8-1 to approve discussions with Exeter School
District to merge the districts. Up to 42 new classes and 31 new clubs and
activities would be available to all students, and maximum use of existing
facilities would be benefits of the merger according to the district's report
on its website, "Merger Summary Draft."
Protests Fail to Deter Chicago From Shutting 49 Schools
New
York Times By STEVEN YACCINO Published: May 22, 2013
CHICAGO
— Officials here in the third-largest district in the country voted Wednesday,
after an emotional meeting, to close 49 public schools that they said were not
being fully used. The decision, passed
overwhelmingly by the Chicago Board of Education, came after weeks of
contentious public hearings that brought more than 34,000 people out to oppose
the school consolidation plan at dozens of meetings across the city.
“Overall, the nation’s
pre-kindergarten-through-12th grade schools spent $595.1 billion on about 48
million students in 2011, with $522.1 billion going toward daily operating
expenses, the data show. That was a decline of 1.1% from 2010, the second year
in a row that total spending dropped.”
Public Spending Per Student Drops
Wall
Street Journal By Stephanie Banchero May 21, 2013 , 4:39 PM
Spending
for elementary and high schools across the 50 states and Washington , D.C.
averaged $10,560 per pupil in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011 . That was
down 0.4% from 2010, the first drop since the bureau began collecting the data
on an annual basis in 1977, the agency said Tuesday. However, when you adjust
the figures for inflation, this isn’t the first drop on record. By that
measure, spending per pupil dropped once in 1995 and hit its highest level in
2009. In inflation-adjusted terms, spending per pupil was down 4% in 2011 from
the peak.
Public Education Finances: 2011 Published
May 2013
EPLC Education Policy Fellowship Program –
Apply Now
Applications are
available now for the 2013-2014 Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP). The Education Policy
Fellowship Program is sponsored in Pennsylvania
by The Education Policy and Leadership Center (EPLC).
With more than 350
graduates in its first fourteen years, this Program is a premier professional
development opportunity for educators, state and local policymakers, advocates,
and community leaders. State Board of Accountancy (SBA) credits are
available to certified public accountants.
Past participants
include state policymakers, district superintendents and principals, school
business officers, school board members, education deans/chairs, statewide
association leaders, parent leaders, education advocates, and other education
and community leaders. Fellows are typically sponsored by their employer
or another organization.
The Fellowship Program
begins with a two-day retreat on September 12-13, 2013 and
continues to graduation in June 2014.
Search underway for PSBA Executive Director
The Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA)
is a nonprofit statewide association of public school boards, pledged to the
highest ideals of local lay leadership for the public schools of the
commonwealth. Founded in 1895, PSBA has a rich history as the first
school boards' association established in the United States . Pennsylvania 's 4,500 school directors become
members by virtue of election to their local board -- the board joins as a
whole. Membership in PSBA is by school district or other eligible local
education agency such as intermediate unit, vocational school or community
college……..
Search
by Diversified Search, 1990 M St NW, Suite 570 , Washington , DC .
Questions may be directed to PSBA@divsearch.com. Interested
parties should email their resume and cover letter to PSBA@divsearch.com.
Please apply by June 1, 2013 for
best consideration.
Sign Up
Today for PILCOP Special Ed CLE Trainings
Spots are filling up for the
final two trainings in our 2012-2013 Know Your Child’s Rights series with
seminars on ADAAA, Pro Se Parents and Settlement Agreements.
For seminar details and
registration: http://pilcop.org/sign-up-today-for-special-ed-cle-trainings/
Turning the Page for Change
celebration, June
11, 2013
Please join us for the Notebook’s annual Turning the Page for
Change celebration on June 11, 2013 , from 4:30 - 7 p.m. at the University of The Arts , Hamilton Hall, 320 S. Broad Street .
We will be honoring a member of the Notebook community for years of
service to our mission as well as honoring several local high school
journalists. Help us celebrate another year of achievement that included two
awards from the Education Writers Association and coverage of other critical
stories like the budget crisis and the school closing process.
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